iocage classes

List iocage_classes 

The variable iocage_classes is a list of jail’s classes composed by an inventory plugin from the iocage tag class. For example, the below project

project:
  log-server-01:
    notes: alias=log_server_01
    vmm: iocage_06
    class: [log-server]
    ...

set the jail’s properties

- name: "Properties: Set properties."
  vars:
    _notes: >-
      "vmm={{ inventory_hostname }}
      class={{ vmm[inventory_hostname][item]['class'] | d([]) | join(',') }}
      {{ vmm[inventory_hostname][item]['notes'] | d('') }}"
    _properties_combined: |
      {{ [vmm[inventory_hostname][item]['properties'] | d({}), properties | d({})]
         | select
         | combine(recursive=true) }}
    _properties: >-
      {% for k, v in _properties_combined.items() %}
      {{ k }}={{ v }}
      {% endfor %}
      notes={{ _notes }}
  ansible.builtin.command: >
    iocage set
    {{ _properties }}
    {{ item }}
  loop: "{{ vmm[inventory_hostname].keys() }}"

and creates notes. (The iocage tag class is a string of comma-separated classes.)

# iocage get notes log-server-01
vmm=iocage_06 class=log-server alias=log_server_01

Inventory groups 

These notes can be used to compose the variable iocage_classes and create inventory groups, for example, the inventory group log_servers

get_properties: true
inventory_hostname_tag: alias

compose:
  iocage_tags: dict(iocage_properties.notes | regex_findall('(\w+)=([\w\-]+)'))
  iocage_classes: iocage_properties.notes | regex_findall('(?<=class=)[\w\-]+|(?<=,)[\w\-]+')

groups:
  log_servers: iocage_classes is contains('log-server')

Custom facts 

The list of classes can be stored in custom facts

# iocage exec log-server-01 cat /usr/local/etc/ansible/facts.d/iocage.fact
#!/bin/sh
cat << EOF
{
    "class": [
        "log-server"
    ]
}
EOF

and used by the FreeBSD service ansible_init to configure the jail

root@log-server-01:~ # cat /root/ansible-conf-init/pb-init.yml

- name: ansible-init
  hosts: localhost.my.domain

  vars:

    ai_class: "{{ ansible_local.iocage.class | d([]) | intersect(ai_db_class) }}"

  tasks:

    - name: Get custom facts.
      ansible.builtin.setup:
        filter: ansible_local

    ...

root@log-server-01:~ # cat /root/ansible-vars/ai-db-class.yml
ai_db_class:
  log-server:
    repo_host: "git://{{ project_hosts.repos }}"
    repo: ansible-conf-roles
    repo_dest: /root
    repo_playbook: pb-roles.yml
  ...

root@log-server-01:~ # cat /var/log/ansible.log

2026-08-23 09:21:37,707 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| PLAY [ansible-init] ************************************************************
2026-08-23 09:21:38,304 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| TASK [Get hostname.] ***********************************************************
2026-08-23 09:21:38,304 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain]
2026-08-23 09:21:40,376 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| TASK [Get custom facts.] *******************************************************
2026-08-23 09:21:40,377 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain]
2026-08-23 09:21:40,418 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| TASK [Include variables from ai_vars directory.] *******************************
2026-08-23 09:21:40,418 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain] => (item=/root/ansible-vars/project-hosts.yml)
2026-08-23 09:21:40,425 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain] => (item=/root/ansible-vars/syslog-ng-server-pkg.yml)
2026-08-23 09:21:40,434 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain] => (item=/root/ansible-vars/ai-db-class.yml)
2026-08-23 09:21:40,446 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain] => (item=/root/ansible-vars/syslog-ng-server.yml)
2026-08-23 09:21:40,454 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain] => (item=/root/ansible-vars/ai-conf-roles.yml)
2026-08-23 09:21:40,463 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain] => (item=/root/ansible-vars/pkg-repo.yml)

2026-08-23 09:21:40,532 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| TASK [Display vars.] ***********************************************************
2026-08-23 09:21:40,533 p=97508 u=root n=ansible INFO| ok: [localhost.my.domain] =>
    msg: |-
        ai_pull_mode: true
        ai_vars: /root/ansible-vars
        ai_hostname: log-server-01
        ai_class: ['log-server']
        project_hosts: {'defaultrouter': '172.16.99.1', 'log_server': '172.16.99.10', 'repos': '172.16.99.21', 'repos_devel': '172.16.99.22', 'pkg_repo': '172.16.99.23'}

Class variables 

The classes can be also used to group configuration. For example, for log-client and log-server server

├── ansible.cfg
├── files
│   ├── ai-conf-roles.yml
│   ├── ai-db-class.yml
│   ├── log-client
│   │   ├── syslog-ng-client-pkg.yml
│   │   └── syslog-ng-client.yml
│   ├── log-server
│   │   ├── syslog-ng-server-pkg.yml
│   │   └── syslog-ng-server.yml
│   └── pkg-repo.yml
├── group_vars
│   └── all
│       ├── project-hosts.yml
│       └── project.yml
└── templates
    └── project-hosts.yml.j2

These configuration files are automatically copied to ai_vars when a project is created. For example,

root@log-server-01:~ # ls -la /root/ansible-vars/
total 9
drwxr-x---  2 root wheel    8 Aug 23 05:55 .
drwxr-x---  6 root wheel   12 Aug 23 11:20 ..
-rw-r-----  1 root wheel  113 Aug 23 09:20 ai-conf-roles.yml
-rw-r-----  1 root wheel  303 Aug 23 09:20 ai-db-class.yml
-rw-r-----  1 root wheel  229 Aug 23 09:20 pkg-repo.yml
-rw-r-----  1 root wheel  164 Aug 23 09:21 project-hosts.yml
-rw-r-----  1 root wheel   72 Aug 19 11:03 syslog-ng-server-pkg.yml
-rw-r-----  1 root wheel 1088 Aug 18 14:33 syslog-ng-server.yml

iocage classes

List iocage_classes

Inventory groups

Custom facts

Class variables

List iocage_classes 

Inventory groups 

Custom facts 

Class variables 